9th arrondissement of Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

The 9th arrondissement of Marseille is one of 16 districts or arrondissement of Marseille. This district is the largest in the city. The 9th district borders the 7th and 8th and the general region is known to be very prestigious. Marseille is the subject of the PLM law and is, like Paris and Lyon, divided into arrondissements. These are 16 in number and are grouped in pairs into eight sectors. Each sector has its council and its sector mayor.

The 9th arrondissement of Marseille is divided into 9 districts: Les Baumettes, Le Cabot, Carpiagne, La Panouse, Le Redon, Mazargues, Sainte-Marguerite, Sormiou and Vaufrèges and 39 IRIS including 37 residential IRIS.

Most of the Carpiagne camp is in the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille. The 1,500 hectares of camp houses the largest fighter training of Bouches du Rhone, the 1 st Foreign Cavalry Regiment. Main landmarks include The Mazargues War Cemetery, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground, is located on Avenue General de Lattre de Tassigny. Covering an area of 9.021 square meters (97,100 sq ft), it contains memorials to 1765 war casualties, including 1487 from World War I and 267 from World War II.

Sectors and districts of Marseille
The sectors and districts of Marseille are intra-municipal administrative divisions that share the territory of Marseille. The city is thus divided into eight sectors and sixteen municipal districts.

The division of Marseille into arrondissements dates from 1946. These municipal districts should not be confused with the departmental districts, which are another type of administrative subdivision at the departmental level. In France, the municipalities of Lyon and Paris are also subdivided into municipal sectors.

The districts of Marseille were grouped into sectors in 1965. These sectors are redrawn and endowed with councils and mayors elected in 1983 then redrawn again by the law of July 9, 1987, which fixes their number at eight.

Les Baumettes
Les Baumettes is a district of the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille. It is known to house the Marseille Penitentiary Center.

Its name comes from Occitan baumetas (baumeto according to the Mistralian standard) literally meaning “small caves”.

It is a starting point or passage for the visit of the creeks of Marseille, in particular those of Sormiou and Morgiou

The Cabot
Cabot is a district of the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille. It is bounded to the north by the Vallon du Chemin de Toulouse or opposite is the 10 th district.

Carpiagne Camp
The Carpiagne camp is a military camp of the French Army located south of the city of Marseille. Occupying an area of 1500 hectares, bordering the national park of the Creeks, the camp offers a remarkable potential for operational readiness activities of the 1 st Foreign Cavalry Regiment, which was stationed at the camp since July 2014 shooting ranges, foot and armored maneuvering areas, areas dedicated to training. Numerous units from the Southeast region come to train there. It is also ideally located near the aerial platform of Istres and the maritime platform of Toulon.

Mazargues
Mazargues is a district of Marseille in the 9 th district. The district has developed around an old village (a parish under the Ancien Régime), which is one of those which have kept its character and life to the most to this day. The village tightens around the central street (rue Émile-Zola), located in the axis of the long avenue de Mazargues (formerly chemin de Mazargues) coming from the city center, and which ends in front of the church of Saint- Roch.

But the main axis of the modern district is formed by the boulevard Michelet, north side, and the avenue de Lattre-de-Tassigny, which the Marseillais call more readily the road of Cassis (because it is the beginning of the old national road 559 connecting Marseille to Cassis, Toulon and beyond by the seaside). The junction between these two avenues is at the Mazargues roundabout, in the center of which stands an obelisk which ends the great north-south alignment of the city (Porte d’Aix – Castellane – Prado roundabout – Mazargues).

The district is part of the canton of Marseille-Mazargues.

The district continues south towards the cove of Morgiou, but its limits are located a little before the prison of Baumettes. The Morgiou path was also the only access to reach the creeks in the past. This narrow path is also much used today since it is still the main access to the prison. The roads have had many problems adapting to traffic and it is common to see traffic jams in this area which, despite its narrowness, is used by buses and trucks.

La Panouse
The Panouse is a district of the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille. The district is rather residential (around the 1900s, Marseilles had their shed and the big bourgeois their country houses like the Serena castle, Aroumias castle, Berger castle). According to INSEE, it is the wealthiest district of Marseille with in 2010 a median tax income per household of € 63,003 (compared to € 23,702 for the entire municipality).

Le Redon
Le Redon is a district of the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille adjacent to neighborhoods Baumettes of Mazargues, of Cabot, of Panouse and Vaufrèges.

Sainte-Marguerite
Sainte-Marguerite is a district of the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille. With 19,997 inhabitants in 2012, it is the most populous district of Marseille.

Sormiou
Sormiou is a district of the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille. It includes the Parc du Roy d’Espagne, shared with the neighboring Pointe-Rouge district; Cayolle; the Baou de Sormiou concerted development zone and the Calanque de Sormiou. It is an essentially residential area.

Vaufrèges
Vaufrèges is a district of the 9 th arrondissement of Marseille. Vaufrèges is a small district located mainly around the Léon Lachamp road (D559), on its terminal part before leaving Marseille, before the Gineste pass.

Vaufrèges is located at the foot of the hill, with very pretty residential houses with large gardens, even hill plots as a garden. Vaufrèges was once a small village, just like the districts of Marseille were also (Mazargues, Le Redon, etc.). The inhabitants of Vaufrèges are called the Valfrégiduciens.

It should be noted that in Provençal, Vau Frejo means Cold Valley, the equivalent of the locality Frais Vallon located in the Rose district, northeast of Marseille.

Calanques National Park
The Calanques National Park is a French national park, covering the calanques of Marseille, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, in the heart of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis. Created in 2012, it is the first peri-urban national park in Europe, both terrestrial and marine.

It extends over a massive coastline made up of limestone cliffs and pudding, coves and islets which constitute relatively preserved ecosystems for many living species. The highest peak of the Calanques National Park is Mont Carpiagne (645 m) in the heart of the Saint-Cyr. massif. For over a century, the site has been visited by many users: walkers, hikers, climbers, fishermen and divers in particular. It receives between 1.5 and 2 million visitors each year.

Geography
The core area of the national park covers the municipalities of Marseille, Cassis and La Ciotat and the membership area includes the municipalities of Marseille, Cassis and La Penne-sur-Huveaune. It includes the Calanques massif, the islands of the Frioul archipelago and the Riou archipelago, Green Island and the Cap Canaille massif.

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The Calanques massif is made up of limestone rocks dating mainly from the Mesozoic (250 to 65 million years ago). This sedimentary rock was formed under the Jurassic and especially the Cretaceous seas, for millions of years, by the accumulation of mineral and organic particles compacted and cemented together. The fossils of marine organisms (algae, sea urchins) bear witness to this marine origin. The rocks subsequently emerged, underwent tectonic movements of horizontal deformation, then a long period of erosion which completely flattened the relief. Around 1.5 Ma, a last tectonic movement raised the entire region, followed by a new period of erosion.

The north of Marseilleveyre and the Carpiagne massif are made up of the oldest rocks (Jurassic). In the majority of the massif and the islands, we find Urgonian limestone (white, formed in the shallow tropical sea), but also some areas of Valanginian limestone, dating from the Cretaceous. To the east of Cassis, the Canaille massif consists of reef and delta rock dating from the end of the Cretaceous.

On a smaller scale, the cutting of the coastline in the form of dozens of creeks was caused by the erosion of watercourses, digging valleys to the outlet to the sea, and to subsequent variations in sea level.. The very cracked limestone rock and karst phenomena have formed a significant number of caves and underground cavities (Saint-Michel d’Eau Douce), underground rivers (Port-Miou, Sugiton).

Flora
The habitat study carried out as part of the European Natura 2000 Network program identifies more than twenty-six natural habitats, to which must be added forty mixed habitats. Approximately nine hundred plant species have been identified, and eighty three protected species.

Fauna
Among the bird species, the Bonelli’s eagle, the gray puffin, and the Mediterranean puffin frequent the places. There are twelve species of reptiles, four of amphibians, and among mammals, the horseshoe bat has its refuge in the karst cavities of the massif.

Marine environment
The submarine relief is mainly made up of two types of ecosystems: the coralligenous on the drop-offs and the seagrass in posidonia on the erosion flats.

Nearly sixty plant and animal species benefit from the attention of researchers or a protection status: the green alga Caulerpa prolifera, the red alga Lithophyllum lichenoids, posidonia, red coral, Venus lace, spondyle donkey foot, sea date, large mother-of-pearl, newt (Charonia lampas). Among the edible crustaceans, the little sea cicada and the big cicada, the big spider crab, the red lobster and the European lobster. The diadem sea urchin and the sea fig. The large limpet appears to have disappeared, due to its excessive harvest.

Certain fish species are threatened: the brown grouper, the corb, the dentit, the speckled seahorse.

Among the species sometimes encountered in coastal waters: turtles, dolphins. The last Calanques monk seal was killed around 1945.

Walk and hike
The massif attracts many visitors and hikers all year round thanks to the wide choice of trails hanging between the sea and the tortuous reliefs. The GR 51 crosses the Calanques massif from west to east. This preserved space near major cities concretizes the problems of overcrowding in a fragile natural environment.

As specified in the IGN leisure map “the calanques from Marseille to Cassis”, although on the seafront, the Calanques massif presents risks similar to those of mountain terrain: the paths are steep, certain passages are risky for an inexperienced walker, others are dizzying and dangerous in case of mistral (risk of destabilization by the wind on the ridges). No water point and little shade exist on the whole massif.

From the calanque of Callelongue, to Cassis, it takes 20 km and 11 hours of walking for a confirmed walker on trails, to do all the creeks. Signs are rare and only paint marks indicate the hiking trails. Only the calanques of Callellongue, Sormiou, Morgiou are inhabited and accessible by road. It is also possible from the calanques of Callellongue, Sormiou, Morgiou, Sugiton, to join public transport, operated by the Régie des transports métropolitains. Cassis being an important starting point to visit the creeks from Port-Miou.

Climbing
The limestone cliffs of the Calanques are a site of climbing at the end of the xix th century, marked by the rise in 1879 from the top of the Great Candelle by the British Consul Francis W. Mark. From that time, they became a training ground for mountaineering for Excursionnistes Marseille and the local section of the Alpine Club. From 1900, the remote locations are explored (Val Virgin Devenson, Castelvieil) and the main peaks and needlesare climbed: Rocher des Goudes (1900), Sugiton needle (1903), Sormiou needle (1904). In the 1920s, large tracks were opened along the large cracks and ridges, such as the Marseilles ridge (1927) or the Cordée ridge (1928).

From the 1930s, difficult routes were opened and Marseille mountaineers such as Édouard Frendo (1910-1968), Gaston Rébuffat (1921-1985), Georges Livanos (1923-2004) distinguished themselves in famous alpine climbs. Subsequently, extremely technical routes are opened in artificial climbing on walls without cracks, in particular at the Hermitage cave, the roofs of Sugiton and the Concave.

From the 1960s, the rise of free climbing with the influence of American climbers (Hemming, Robbins, Harlin) reported in En-Vau by the spurs of the Americans. From the years 1970-1980, many routes were equipped for sport climbing and the Calanques sites became famous in France and Europe. French climbers stand out in increasingly difficult free routes: following the example of Patrick Edlinger in Nymphodalle (7c, 1979), to the ninth degree with François Legrandin Robi in The Sky (9a, 2000). The equipment of new tracks continued for the following decades, funded by clubs and local authorities. The creation of the national park introduces a ban on equipping new routes and measures to protect flora and fauna (access paths, nesting cliffs).

With around 3,400 listed routes (2,400 sports and 1,000 adventures), easy access and a favorable climate in all seasons, the Calanques are today one of the most famous climbing sites in France and in Europe.

Diving
The Calanques coastline is a place renowned for scuba diving. The Cosquer cave is located above sea level, under the tip of Morgiou, but its entrance is -37 m deep, a long gut going up towards the cave. This entry is prohibited following a fatal diving accident. Its walls are decorated with paintings and engravings dating from 27,000 to 19,000 years BC. AD and represent terrestrial animals (bison, ibex, horses…) as well as marine (seals, penguins, etc.) The entrance today submerged was located almost a hundred meters above the level of the sea at the time when the drawings and prints were executed, during the marine regression caused by the last glaciation.

Faced with the massive Marseille Creeks, two Roman shipwrecks have been excavated at a first major campaigns of the Calypso of Cousteau, at the foot of the island of Grand Congloué. Recently the wreck of the ship that brought the plague of 1720 to Marseille was found at the foot of Jarre Island.

Half a mile east of the island of Riou, in front of the massif, the Aéro-Relic association and the Marseille-based company Comex in 2003 brought up the wreckage of the Lockheed P type military aircraft. -38 Lightning of the famous writer-aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, disappeared on July 31, 1944 during a reconnaissance mission preparing the landing of the Allies (August 15) on the coasts of Provence.

Diving enthusiasts can descend to visit the wreck of the Lebanese ocean liner, stranded against the drop off of Maïre Island, at the western end of the massif.

Marseille
Marseille is the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France. It is located on the Mediterranean coast near the mouth of the Rhône. Marseille is the second largest city in France, covering an area of 241 km2 (93 sq mi) and had a population of 870,018 in 2016.

Marseille has a complex history. It was founded by the Phoceans (from the Greek city of Phocea) in 600 B.C. and is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Marseille is the second largest city in France in terms of population. Its population is a real melting pot of different cultures.

For people not afraid to discover a real place with real people, Marseille is the place. From colourful markets (like Noailles market) that will make you feel like you are in Africa, to the Calanques (a natural area of big cliffs falling into the sea – Calanque means fjord), from the Panier area (the oldest place of the town and historically the place where newcomers installed) to the Vieux-Port (old harbor) and the Corniche (a road along the sea) Marseille has definitely a lot to offer.

Marseille is now France’s largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. The city was European Capital of Culture in 2013 and European Capital of Sport in 2017; it hosted matches at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2016. It is home to Aix-Marseille University.

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